The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeks to prevent or reduce interference among radio transmitters by licensing specific frequency bands for use by specific types of radio transmitters. The FCC has licensed the television (TV) band (corresponding to channels 2 through 51) primarily for use for TV transmissions. The FCC has also licensed certain TV band channels for use by other types of radio transmitters. For example, channel 37 is reserved for radio astronomy, channels 7 through 46 are licensed for further use by Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS), channels 14 through 20 are licensed for further use by the Private Land Mobile Radio System (PLMRS), channels 4-36 and 38-51 are licensed for further use by remote control devices, and channels 2 through 51 are licensed for further use by wireless microphones.
Subject to certain conditions targeted toward reducing the risk of interference between licensed and unlicensed radio transmitters operating in the TV band, the FCC also allows unlicensed radio transmitters to operate on frequencies in the TV band that are allocated to broadcasting services but are not used locally. These frequencies may be referred to herein as the TV white space (TVWS) and include, for example, frequencies corresponding to channels 2-36 and 38-51.